Robert Louis Stevenson

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Scottish writer, novelist and poet whose stories are noted for adventure and imagination. Some of his most famous works are "Treasure Island" published in 1883, "A Child’s Garden of Verses" 1885, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Kidnapped" 1886. A frail, sickly child, his poor health due to a lung condition continued throughout his life. His adoring and possessive parents filed away everything of his from infancy onward. Stevenson’s father, Thomas, an overbearing man, was a marine engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses. His first work, "Pentland Rising of 1666" was published in 1866. When Robert entered Edinburgh University in 1867 it was to study engineering, which he abandoned for law. He was admitted to the bar as advocate in 1875. One of his letters reveals he bought hashish as a young man. During his school years he contributed to the "Edinburgh University Magazine" in 1871 and "Portfolio" in 1873. Suffering from tuberculosis, Stevenson frequently traveled in search of health. While traveling he wrote essays, short stories, copious letters, travelogues, including "Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes" in 1879 and some autobiographical material. A visitor to so many doctors, he dedicated one of his books to 11 of them. A verbose person, Stevenson wrote down everything including minutia. In 1878 he traveled by emigrant ship and train to California where he met and married Fanny Osbourne, then settled for a time in Saranac, NY, returning to Scotland in 1883. Collaborating with W. E. Henley, Stevenson wrote a few dramas in the 1880’s. In 1888 the family set out for the South Seas and settled in Vailima, Samoa, three miles from the town of Apia, where he temporarily recovered his health. He wrote "The Master of Ballantrae" in 1989 and "A Footnote to History" about the Pacific Islands and the affect of British colonialism was published in 1892. "Stevenson, A Life" was written by Graham Balfour and published in 1901 and was followed by several other biographies. "Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson" edited by Ernest Mehew for Yale University Press was published in 1994. John Singer Sargent painted some portraits of him. Stevenson and Frances Sitwell Osbourne, a divorcee and aspiring painter 11 years his senior, were married in 1880. His family and many of his friends didn’t think the marriage should have taken place. Due to his health problems, the family, including Stevenson’s mother and his two stepchildren, Lloyd and Belle Osbourne, moved to Samoa, stopping in Hawaii and Australia on the way. Belle became her stepfather’s secretary and took his dictation even on the last day of his life as he worked on his unfinished masterpiece, "The Weir of Hermiston." Fanny is said to have become jealous of her daughter, but is given credit for taking care of him and improving his health while they were in the South Seas. Stevenson died suddenly of stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, on 3 December 1894 at 8:10 PM. He was buried at 4:00 PM the next day on Mount Vaea and his grave marker contains the text of his most famous poem, "Requiem." Link to Wikipedia biography